A primary goal of companies producing complex instruments is to reduce the cost of manufacturing their products, without compromising quality.
Insights
Here we describe the challenges and advantages to different methods of cost reduction that leave the quality of the final product intact.
Posted by: Invetech on August 5, 2009
Categories: Contract Manufacturing, Diagnostics
A primary goal of companies producing complex instruments is to reduce the cost of manufacturing their products, without compromising quality.
Time to market with adequate quality is the primary focus of companies launching first-of-kind products. Once established and growing in the market, the focus may shift to adding customer valued features and reducing cost. A major focus for companies with fast following next-generation designs is reliability and functionality. At the same time, the contract manufacturing (CM) design team can apply value engineering and design-for-manufacturing analysis to provide additional cost reductions that can be integrated seamlessly with the product’s new feature.
Incremental cost reductions are generally achieved by having a CM partner who routinely reviews the bill of materials (BOM) using its experience to identify parts that could be:
I recommend that the manufacturer take the following steps:
The actions listed here are general in nature and can simply be considered good security practice. In reality, you would implement significantly more mitigations, including activities specifically designed to protect the manufacturer’s intellectual property.
The analysis undertaken during the initial design and manufacture of a diagnostic device is only the first step in the process of maintaining security. Once you have decided on which mitigations that your system will use, you need to analyze new threats to see whether they can be fully neutralized by these mitigations.
Many different factors can highlight the need for a threat analysis. These might be external (such as new vulnerabilities and capabilities, operating system patches) or internal factors (such as a device software update or patch). As a manufacturer of diagnostic devices, you are responsible for ensuring that threat analysis is performed continually and thoroughly.
No IT system is ever 100 percent secure. But producers of diagnostic devices are responsible for the way their products operate within a larger ecosystem.
By working collaboratively with an instrument development partner who is experienced in designing and implementing cybersecurity measures for a range of medical and other devices, you can have increased confidence that your device will be safe and reliable in protecting patients’ lives.
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